Recombination analysis reveals a double recombination event in hepatitis E virus

Hua Wang,Yuyu Song,Li Cui,Wen Zhang,Hongxing Shen,Xiaochun Wang,Shihe Shao,Bin Ni,Xiuguo Hua

doi:10.1186/1743-422x-7-129

Hua Wang, Yuyu Song + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/1743-422x-7-129

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Abstract

Recombination of Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) has rarely been reported. In the present study, phylogenetic and recombination analyses were performed on 134 complete HEV genomes. Three potentially significant recombination events, including both intra-genotype and one inter-genotype, were identified by recombination detection analysis. Recombination events I and II occurred intra-genotype and inter-genotype, respectively, among three isolates, including the lineage represented by CHN-XJ-SW13 (GU119961, swine isolate), E067-SIJ05C (AB369690, human isolate), and JJT-Kan (AB091394, human isolate), and lead to the recombinant swine isolate swCH31 (DQ450072). Recombination event III occurred between the lineage represented by the NA1 (M73218) and K52-87 (L25595), which resulted in the recombinant Xingjiang-1 (D11092). Our analyses proved that that recombination could occur between human and swine HEV strains, double recombination events existed in HEV, and recombination event could happen within ORF2 region of HEV. These results will provide valuable hints for future research on HEV diversity.

Highlights

Recombination of Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) has rarely been reported
The mortality rate of HEV infection is higher among women, and hepatitis E virus infection is highly prevalent among pregnant women [3,4]
ORF2 is at the 3'-terminus of the HEV genome and encodes the viral capsid protein which has three glycosylation sites

Summary

Introduction

Recombination of Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) has rarely been reported. In the present study, phylogenetic and recombination analyses were performed on 134 complete HEV genomes. One of them was performed in 2005, when there were only about 30 HEV strains with full genome available in GenBank [14]; the other one was focused on the open reading frame structure analysis [15]. We analyze the available complete HEV genome sequences in GenBank in order to systematically investigate the presence of recombination among HEV strains.

Results

Conclusion